


You Are My Hope

by SunsetxStarlight



Category: Cloak & Dagger (TV 2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Human Trafficking, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mental Breakdown, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Panic Attacks, Tandy Bowen Needs a Hug, Tyrone Johnson is a cinnamon roll, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 11:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18991735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunsetxStarlight/pseuds/SunsetxStarlight
Summary: Tyrone takes a trip to the motel to rescue Tandy after she has been missing for a whole week.  Canon divergence for events past episode 6 as this was written before ep 7 Vikingtown Sound came out.  There is implied rape/human trafficking, so be aware of that before reading.





	You Are My Hope

**Author's Note:**

> I was requested to write a fic a while ago before episode 7 came out where Ty rescued Tandy from the motel. I finished it after seeing the episode so there are pieces of it that are accurate but others that aren't.

It’s been a week since Tandy disappeared.  It has been a week since I lost the light in my life.  Yes, I was upset.  I thought just for a moment that we were going to be honest with each other.  I needed her help to get Connors in jail and she lied to me about Lia.  If we were supposed to be a team, I had to know I could rely on her to back me up when I needed it.  So I said something I didn’t mean.  I know I wasn’t completely justified in my anger either.  Her request caught me off guard.  When she asked me to be her...abusive boyfriend or pimp...that hurt the most.  I was sick of being shoved into a box labelled  _ violent _ because of my skin.  I was so hurt that my best friend would call me, her only black friend,  to play a character like that, that I didn’t realize...I was her only friend.  There was no one else she could have asked because she had  _ no one else _ .

I would sit alone in the church she let me live in, thinking about the last words I spoke to her.  “The way you’ve been acting, maybe I don’t need you at all.”  I didn’t mean it.  Not in the slightest.  I was angry and I was hurt, and that’s the only thing those words reflected.

Alone is all I’ve felt for the last week.  Alone and sick to my stomach. I called every hospital.  I talked extensively with O’Reilly, and I’ve reached as deep as our connection goes, but  _ I couldn’t feel her _ .  It was in those gut wrenching moments that I realized I don’t want to live a life without Tandy in it.  It was in those moments I realized there was always only one person who I could trust to hold my soul in her hands.  I had to break it off with Evita.  It wouldn’t have been fair to her if I lied to myself.

A few days passed like that, in an anxious frenzy, tearing up the city and threatening criminals, promising to spare them if they’d only tell me where she was.  I’d let them go if they’d only tell me where she was.  But I got nowhere.  Even Conners’ incarceration did little to ease the heavy sinking feeling in my gut.

But even with the constant pounding of my heart and the unforgivable nightmares that have been plaguing me the last few nights, none of that can possibly compare to the dizzying mixture of both relief and horror that threatens to tear me apart from the inside out in this very moment.

Even as I clutch the back of O’Reilly’s chair, I can feel the darkness churning and writhing inside of me.  The pressure builds and a mist of darkness begins to roll off of my body in waves.  But I can’t think about that.  I can’t think about anything, but the entirely too real image of my best friend on the screen.

“Ty…?  Ty are you alright?”

But I can’t speak.  I try to move my lips.  I urge myself to find something...anything to say.  But every time I try my throat begins to tighten.

“Ty, it’s okay.  She’s alive. This is good news!”

Her words brush my ears and soar right past them.  My eyes remain glued on the screen.  On the picture.  The picture of Tandy, with a price listed below it.  $750.  Except she’s not smiling.  No.  She wasn’t awake when they took this photo.  The website displays her image like a product, clad in only undergarments, sprawled out cold on a hard floor.  My mind is racing and all I can think is this is  _ my fault this is my fault she wanted my help too this is my fault I- _

“Tyrone!” Brigid’s words save me from drowning in the darkness.  “Focus.”

“Yeah...yeah right,” but my voice is hoarse, “Where did you…how did you find-?”

“I’ve been scanning the dark web for her using her physical traits and image matching technology.  If this works, we can book you an ‘appointment’ with her and get her home without too much trouble.  I can get backup to surround the place and take over the facility once she’s home.”  Even though O’Reilly’s words are simply logistical, I can hear the waver in her voice.  This won’t be easy for her either.

“I love her, you know,” the words escape my lips seemingly of their own volition.  The revelation sends shockwaves down my spine and I know it’s true.  I love her, and I’ve always loved her.  Somehow, before we even met.  And without Tandy there is  _ no light _ .  Without Tandy there is  _ no hope _ .  I close my eyes and take a deep breath and fight back the burning in my eyes, and the wetness on my cheeks.  How infinitely worse is it to be alone when the person you love is in danger.

“Hey...hey Ty it’s gonna be okay,” O’Reilly turns in her chair to face me, and I’m filled with a rush of shame for crying in front of her.  “Are you sure you want to be the one to go in first?  I’m sure we can still get her out if you feel like you can’t-”

“-Yes.  I’m sure.  She would do it for me.”

Brigid looks at me for a moment and nods.  “In a heartbeat.  She loves you too, you know.”

My heart swells and I wipe away any remaining tears on my face.  “Yeah.  Yeah she does.”

We talk for a little bit about the plan until we have it set in stone.  I wake up the next morning with a feeling of anxious anticipation.  There are ways this could go right.  And there are ways this could go very wrong, very quickly.  The good news is I’ve got O’Reilly on my side, and the cops should be right behind me if anything goes wrong.  Not that the cops have been all too trustworthy in my experience.

I roll out of bed, thankfully in my own home, since I’m no longer the dreaded ‘cop killer,’ filled with a sense of duty and unstoppable darkness that rejuvenates me.  I scarf down my breakfast at light speed and my mother has to tell me to slow down, but  _ everything hinges on today.   _ My ‘appointment’ is at nine P.M. and I have time to go over the plan again.

I grab a backpack and put some supplies in there for Tandy—a pair of my sweatpants and a T-shirt, a towel, a small blanket, a first aid kit.  I just include things she may or may not want or need, but that’s more for once I can teleport us away.

I meet with O’Reilly one more time before the plan begins, and at nine P.M. sharp I find myself standing in front of the motel desk.

“Do you need a room, sir or do you already have one booked?” The tired looking woman at the desk asks me with a gravelly tone.  She looks like she hasn’t slept in years with her dull grey eyes and silver hair.  I hesitate for a moment.

“I, um...I think I booked a room online…”

The woman raises an eyebrow and asks, “You got a name, kid?”

I’m immediately filled with panic and consider walking away but I remember Tandy and stay still.  “Uh...yeah.  Mike Smith.”

“Huh...it’s like everyone that comes here’s got Smith or Jones for a last name,” the grizzled woman mutters sarcastically, though without much enthusiasm, handing me the room key.  It makes sense that people don’t use their real names when they come here.  No one with a mind sick enough to use people at a place like this would want to associate their own good name with their crimes. 

I chuckle awkwardly, silently praying she doesn’t see through me.  “Weird coincidence, huh?”

Her eyes squint at me for a moment, as if she is carefully contemplating her next words.  “Yeah. Weird.”

And with that I begin to walk away, my shoes squeaking against the tile as I stare down at the room key.  Room 203.  When I walk back out into the chilly evening, the bright lights of the motel sign assault my eyes with gaudy colors and a joyful facade that is downright unsettling to look at.  I do my best to detach myself from the situation.  I’m on a mission like all of the ones before.  I have a job and it  _ will be successful. _

I carefully climb the stairs to the second level where room 203 is and begin to notice my knees wobbling.  Snap out of it!  As I’m walking by, some of the rooms are silent.  Even worse, some of them aren’t.  I nearly get light headed.

When I finally reach the door the shaking has reached my hands.  My worst fear is that I’ll open the door and Tandy won’t be there.  What then?

I force my mind to quiet as I insert the key to the dull grey door and turn it.  The door creaks as I open it, and I step inside.  I glance around the shabby motel room until my eyes land on her.

My heart stops and I nearly fall to my knees.  She’s huddled against the headboard with her knees drawn into her chest and her face hidden in her arms.  She’s dressed in a simple white nightgown with a headband that she’d never pick for herself in a million years.  The girl I see  _ is _ Tandy Bowen, but the sight of my best friend and other half trembling in place with bruised arms makes my stomach twist and my eyes begin to sting.

She looks up quickly in response to the sound of the door opening, and her glassy eyes meet mine in complete and utter disbelief.  “Tandy,” a pleading whisper escapes my lips, because it is all I can manage without falling apart.  I shut the door and teleport right up to her, the adrenaline of the moment clouding my mind.  She shrinks away from me when I appear at the side of the bed.  It causes a pang of sadness to settle in my gut.  “Tandy...hey...it’s gonna be okay.  I’m gonna get you out of here,”

She looks at me with the wide eyes of a child who just woke up from a nightmare.  There is desperation and fear hidden in her gaze, but most of all...hopelessness.  “Come on Tan, please,” I tell her gently, reaching my hand out for her to take.

She seems to consider my offer for an instant, before a sudden shift comes over her entire form like a cold frost.  She begins to shake her head, screwing her eyes shut and pressing her lips together as if she were willing me to just disappear.  “No, no no no no...you’re not real,” she mutters more to herself than to me.  I’m struck with confusion.  Why wouldn’t I be real?

“What?  No, Tan I’m real and...is that a black eye?”

“Please go away…” she practically begs me, turning away and stifling a sob.  I am left so completely and utterly confused and hurt that I don’t have a single clue what to do next.  This wasn’t the reaction I was prepared for, and most certainly isn’t the same Tandy I spoke to a week ago.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Tan,” my voice cracks as the words make their way out.

My words, however, only seem to anger her.  The soft contours of her face screw up in absolute disgust and hatred as she struggles to wipe tears from her face, “Leave me alone!  Stop…!” she gasps through her tears, “Stop messing with my head!  This is all your fucking fault,  _ you coward! _ ”

I’m struck with the fear that someone will come bust the door open if she continues to shout at me.  I gently grab her wrist and teleport the two of us to the church, somewhere I know she can feel safe.  She jerks away from me the moment we land, stumbling around for a moment before freezing in her tracks.

“Ty?” her sad brown eyes meet my own and search them hesitantly for answers.  “Is that really you?” her voice is hoarse, but it is filled with so much love and reverence that my heart nearly bursts.

“It’s me, Tandy.  What...what happened?”  I can’t help but notice the far away look in her eyes as she slowly approaches me.  But before I get a chance to examine the purple bruise around her eye that caught my attention I am overwhelmed with a rush of pure relief and adoration as two shaky arms wrap themselves around my torso and a wet cheek is pressed into my chest.  She releases a shaky sob into my shirt.

“ _ I thought you were dead _ .”

I freeze for a moment to let her words sink in.  She thought I was  _ dead? _  She spent a week locked in that place enduring who knows what all while believing I was  _ dead?  _  I carefully wrap my arms around her trembling form and press my lips gently against the top of her head, allowing my eyes to fall closed and my emotions to run wild.  Why couldn’t she leave?  How did this happen?  And what made her think I was dead?  Who is responsible for this, and who littered her beautiful skin with bruises?  The questions overwhelm me, but all I can think about is that  _ she is safe now. _

“Why did you think I was dead, Tan?” I ask cautiously, gently rubbing circles on her back.

“Because I  _ saw him shoot you. _  He was messing with my head...Ty.  We’re not the only ones who were in the water that night.”

The revelation tightens my chest, as a whole new array of fears course through my veins.  If there’s someone else like us, and they’re the one behind these missing girls, then taking them down is going to be a lot harder than I could’ve possibly imagined.  But none of that matters.

Not right now.  Here, with Tandy in my arms, I am whole again.  Come what may, we’ll face it together.  But even an uncertain future is a blessing when I can look into her warm brown eyes and know that  _ I am not alone. _

**Tandy POV**

_ I am not alone. _  The words run through my head over and over again until they devolve into a muddled mess.  He’s alive...he’s  _ alive _ .  And I can finally remember what it’s like to feel alive too.

All of the pain and emptiness that has been seeping into my bones and curling into my soul no longer matters to me, because  _ he is alive _ .  I realize very suddenly that I’m crying, but I don’t have the physical or emotional energy to care.  All I can manage to do is hold onto him with a vice-like grip, for fear of letting him disappear for good.  I can hear his heart beating rapidly in his chest as his fingers rub circles on my back, and I cannot even begin to fathom what he might be thinking right now.

There is a piece of me that believes he’ll be disgusted with me when he finds out what happened at that motel.  The more rational part of me scoffs at the thought of Tyrone Johnson having so little empathy.  His heart is huge, and that’s just who he is, I tell myself.  I can tell him anything.  He won’t be disgusted.

But he might be  _ disappointed _ .  That might be worse.  What if he-

“Shhh...You’re okay now Tandy, I got you.”  A warm hand rises and cradles my head against his chest as I sob into his shirt.  His hand carefully dances through my hair and smooths over my neck.  The tender sensation causes me to hold my breath.  It feels like it’s been a lifetime since anyone held me so gently, using touch not as a cruel weapon but as a soothing balm to ease my pain.  Each pleasant caress reminds me just how much this boy means to me.  Every uneven breath of his reminds me how thankful I am that he is alive.  I realize that I would give my life for his a thousand times over if it came down to it.

“I don’t want to fight him, Ty.  Andre...the...the one who orchestrated all of this.  He gets inside of your head and puts you through...through this excruciating pain...and then when you’re broken and have no hope left at all that’s when...when he…he-” my mind begins to spiral somewhere dark as my voice practically cuts out, unable to continue.

“You don’t have to finish,” Ty’s voice is soft and sympathetic as his arms pull me closer.  “We’re gonna get him.  You know that?  We’re gonna make him pay for the pain he’s put all these girls through.  We’re gonna make him pay for the pain he’s put  _ you _ through.  I promise,  _ he’s _ gonna be the one suffering when we’re done with him.”  I pull back to look into his eyes.  There is a laser focus and deep truthfulness about his gaze.  It’s just the reassurance I need.

I nod silently, unable to speak but eternally grateful for my best friend and protector.  He takes this moment to gently grab my arms and examine them.  Every instinct inside of me is screaming at me to pull away, but this is  _ Ty. _  He is the only person I know for sure I can trust.  

“Who did this to you Tandy?” his voice breaks as he speaks in almost a whisper, brushing his thumbs over the bruises that litter my arms.  “Are you hurt anywhere else?  Did they make you-” but he stopped himself, probably a result of his better judgement stepping in.  I can only close my eyes and bite my lip to attempt to push away the memories.

“Ty, I really can’t talk about that right now,” I tell him with as much patience as I have.  The last week has been tearing holes in my head and ripping pieces from my heart so violently that I struggle to fall asleep at night.  I can’t think about it anymore.  At least not now.  I refuse to break again.  When I open my eyes I feel guilt begin to settle in my chest  when I meet the immensely worried expression of the one and only Tyrone Johnson.  “Trust me, you really don’t want to hear about this.”

He pauses for a moment before saying, “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too soon.  I just wanna make sure you’re gonna be okay.  I want you to know that I  _ am _ here to listen if you ever want to talk--about any of it.  You’re my best friend, Tandy.  This doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

“You won’t look at me the same-”

“-Tandy this doesn’t change the person you are-”

“-I’m a weak and pathetic excuse for a hero and-”

“You can’t talk like that, Tandy!”

“ _ Every night Ty! _ ” I cry out unexpectedly.  The words simply erupted from my being and exploded when they hit the air.  I can feel my hands trembling.

He grows quiet all of a sudden, his face softening.  “What?” he sounds like a kid.

“They made me...I had to...I was sold.  _  Every night for a week _ .”

He stands very still with an expression of utter brokenness on his face.  “Tandy,” he whispers.

“I thought you were dead, Ty.  There was nothing left to live for.  Nothing left to hope for.  Andre took away my powers and...gave me these drugs...I  _ couldn’t move _ ...shit, I couldn’t do anything!”

I begin to crumble, avoiding Ty’s gaze in a state of shame and self revulsion.  What kind of hero lets herself become a victim?  What kind of hero cries alone in an empty motel room at 4 A.M. because she can’t repress the violence and pain she experienced an hour ago?  What kind of hero spends her time telling girls to escape, but is unable to herself?  What kind of hero am I?  Can I even call myself one?  I can feel my throat constrict and my chest begin to heave.  It all comes rushing back like a river of black ink, it’s only goal to consume me.

“Tandy...hey...hey focus on me.  Look at me, Tan.  What color are my eyes?”

But the room is spinning and I think I’m on the ground now but I can’t see because all I see are nameless men with wicked smiles and predatory eyes and my heart is pounding because _ I can’t move _ , but I try and it doesn’t work but they don’t care because to them I am not human I am not human-

“Tandy, breathe.”

There are hands on my shoulders and I want to scream but I can’t because  _ I can’t move _ and I want to die and I wish Ty was here but he’s dead and I’m alone-

“Tandy listen...please...It’s Ty.  Please come back to me...please...I’m here.  I’m alive, and I’ve got you.  You’re safe now Tandy.  I’m so sorry.”

The hands release me and I tumble through vast expanse of emptiness until a voice gets louder and louder until I can hear it and I recognize that voice.  That voice is Ty and he’s alive and I can remember I was in the church and I  _ am _ in the church and his eyes are brown and they’re the softest most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen.

And now I see them, right in front of me like a dream.  It was real.  He is real.  I’m aware that my breathing is labored but I just focus on his eyes as I let go of my shackles, my eyes burning.  His face is so  _ kind _ , I pull myself down to reality and slowly realize that I’m curled up like a fool on the floor.

“It’s just me Tandy.  I’m going to protect you.  No matter what.”  My hands begin to heat up and as I look down two daggers appear in my palms, their bright glow illuminating his face.  My breath hitches as I stare in wonderment at the sight of the powers I thought were gone for good.  “I...I thought he took your powers away?” Ty asks breathlessly.

And then it clicks, and I push myself up onto my knees and focus on his beautiful eyes.  “You are my hope, Tyrone Johnson.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and please review if you enjoyed the story! Let me know if you'd like more Cloak and Dagger fics!


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